Pages

Categories

Georgia governor postpones Los Angeles trip as film industry protests new anti-abortion law

The AJC said Kemp would no longer attend an event slated for next week and noted the timing of the delay came in the wake of Kemp signing into law a controversial bill that would generally ban abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. Fetal heartbeat detection can come as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy — when many women don’t yet know they are pregnant.

Cody Hall, Kemp’s spokesman, told CNN that they had “confirmed a date to go out to LA this fall.”

“In the meantime, the Governor will be touring production studios in GA to meet with employees and reaffirm his commitment to the film industry in our state,” Hall said.

In recent years, following the passage of a tax incentive, Georgia has been the site of increasing film and television production, with the entertainment industry becoming a high-profile and widely-championed sector of the state’s economy. But the recent passage of one of the strictest anti-abortion bills in the country has been met with condemnation by filmmakers, some of whom have said they will avoid production in the state because of the measure.

Others, including directors J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele, said they would continue to shoot in the state but donate their fees to the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and a Georgia election reform group.

Kemp signed the legislation earlier this month. Legal groups, including the ACLU, have pledged to challenge the law and called it an illegal infringement on established rights to abortion access.

Georgia GOP Sen. David Perdue said on Monday he doesn’t think the backlash from Hollywood would hurt his state’s economy.